IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v74y2025icp1-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do low-carbon city pilots promote carbon equality? From the perspective of regional fairness

Author

Listed:
  • Feng, Tong
  • Wang, Xiaomin
  • Wang, Nan
  • Ma, Jie
  • Chen, Zhenni
  • Tu, Qiang
  • Li, Qun

Abstract

The Low-Carbon City Pilot (LCCP) policy is central to China's strategy for reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable development. This study introduces a dual-framework approach to carbon equality, distinguishing between economic and ecological dimensions. Using a difference-in-differences (DID) methodology, the analysis covers prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019. Results indicate that the LCCP significantly enhanced economic and ecological carbon equality by 9.2 % and 8.4 %, respectively. Mechanism analysis identifies technological innovation, energy consumption, and renewable energy as key moderating factors, in line with the Porter hypothesis. Green patents and renewable energy enhance the LCCP's effects on carbon sequestration, economic growth, and emissions reduction. High energy consumption limits the policy's impact, but the LCCP improves energy efficiency, especially in energy-intensive cities. Heterogeneity analysis reveals stronger effects in economically developed cities and eastern China. This study offers valuable insights into how LCCP can promote regional fairness across economic and ecological contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng, Tong & Wang, Xiaomin & Wang, Nan & Ma, Jie & Chen, Zhenni & Tu, Qiang & Li, Qun, 2025. "Do low-carbon city pilots promote carbon equality? From the perspective of regional fairness," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-13.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:74:y:2025:i:c:p:1-13
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2025.02.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X25000335
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2025.02.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:74:y:2025:i:c:p:1-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.